The attention of the running world this weekend may have been focussed on Sunday’s marathons, but Saturday morning still belongs to parkrun!
Our fast lads were in form, with Mark Anderson leading the field at Leazes, Anton Mirafsari winning at Blackhill in a course PB, and Alex Taylor was first at Prudhoe! Despite running a PB, Harry Mawdsley couldn’t quite make it a quadruple by replicating his previous win at Birkenhead, and had to settle for second place. Not to be outdone, our women also impressed, with Catherine Young running a PB to finish first female at Fulwell Quarry, and Cate Walker came 2nd on her first outing at Cheadle Hulme.
The PB machine that is Lena Lou was at is again, this time at Blyth. There were also PBs for Tara Hipwood on the Town Moor and Peter Noble at Gateshead.
Alexia O’Rourke was in Lincolnshire where she is a fairly frequent visitor to Doddington Hall. Lucy Keating ran on the south coast, literally, with a parkrun along the seafront at Worthing. Rose Hawkswood was on the recovery trail in Belfast where, in her own words, “Ran the whole thing, might still be drunk.”
Meanwhile, Hazel Juggins, a new convert to parkrun, took advantage of a trip to the Isle of Bute to run at Mount Stuart parkrun, which she described thus: “I had the chance to try Mount Stuart parkrun as I’m on the Isle of Bute. The course is all on gravel / grassy trails through the grounds of a fancy house with a bit of up and down (think: if Cragside did Harrier League…). The dreich weather was offset by the friendly volunteers and runners and the sociable post-run coffee shop, complete with just-baked scones!” Scones always make parkrun worthwhile!
Nearer home, but also on the recovery trail, it was good to see Niki Szlovak running at Riverside.
